Looking out over a quiet sea lapping the shore on a sunny day, it is almost inconceivable to think that it is inexorably rising. The globe is locked into a future of sea level rise of anywhere between 30 cm and 1 metre by 2100, and possibly much higher by that date, if ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland melt rapidly. Importantly, the changes that will impact on low-lying coastal areas aren’t just the rise of the sea itself, but the combination of this with more frequent extreme weather events, erosion, rising groundwater, flooding, and ponding. There are innumerable dimensions to the challenges this raises, and one of those dimensions is what it means for coastal landscapes of the future.